“It ain’t easy being me” is not an understatement — at least when the speaker is Arnie Gervasio.

Gervasio is a bit like James Brown, the late “Godfather of Soul,” also known as “the hardest working man in show business.” Gervasio may be the hardest working man in the shoeing business. His client list reads like the Who’s Who of the show jumping and dressage circles. Maybe Gervasio should go by the name, “Godfather of Sole.”

I set out to find out what it takes to get to the top in those circles. It is late May here in Wellington, Fla., and I want to hook up with him before he heads north for the summer.

8 a.m. The phone rings. I had called Gervasio earlier in the week to schedule a day to spend with him.

“Today would be a good day,” he tells me. “Meet me in an hour at Diamante Farm on Indian Mound Road. I have to go to the supply shop first and I will meet you there.”

It is just like the old days, when a single morning phone call would change your entire carefully planned day.

9 a.m. I am sitting on Indian Mound Road waiting for Gervasio to show up with the code to open the gate to the farm. He arrives right behind me in his pickup and tag-along shoeing trailer. His associates are following in their vehicles and we continue as a convoy down the driveway.

We park and Gervasio…